Help+Manual News

Major Update: Premium Pack 3.20 and 3.21

Premium Pack version 3.20 is now available, and since the initial release we have also put out a small 3.21 maintenance release that corrects some issues reported by users. This is a free update for all current Premium Pack 3 users. It is the largest update to date, with significant new features and improvements for the V3 Responsive skins and the V2 skins for both WebHelp and EWriter books.

How to get the update:

You can download and install the updated version with the same download link and installation password from the mail you received when you purchased your copy of Premium Pack 3. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out.

New in the V3 Responsive Skins

New handling of multiple TOC entries for topics
Navigation now works perfectly for multiple TOC entries for the same topic. Previous, next and breadcrumb links go to the correct TOC entries, not to the first entry for the topic. Chapters consisting of a single topic work correctly. You can also link to specific TOC entries with both URLs and topic links.

Support for user JS code, URL parameters and session variables
Add code to be executed automatically after each topic loads. Pass parameters to your code with URLs and store them in session variables that persist for the current session or across sessions. Hide and show topic content on the basis of session variable settings.

Tap images and layout tables for mobile devices
Tap images make normal images behave like toggles on mobile devices. A double-tap expands the image to the screen size with pinch-zoom. Layout tables hide tables that would break mobile layouts and replaces them with a tap bar. Tapping displays the full scrollable table on top of the help. You just need to add a class name to activate both functions.

Support for Google Web Fonts with H+M editor integration
You now integrate Google Web Fonts in your WebHelp output and also use them directly in Help+Manual so that you see the fonts you are using while you are editing. Setting them up and using them is quick and easy.

Expand All option for Keyword Index pane in desktop mode
Setting the new INDEX_DESK_EXPAND variable to true a fully-expanded keyword index is now generated in desktop browsers.

SmartCache for topics and popups
Topics and popups are cached after the first visit in the current session, but the first access always loads from the server to ensure the user never sees an old version.

Support for formatted headers from the topic
Include the formatted header from the topic in the header of V3 skins, enabling the inclusion of images inserted in individual headers. This is activated with a new Skin Build Options setting in the Publish screen.

New in the V2 WebHelp + EWriter skins

Support for user JS code, URL parameters and session variables
Add code to be executed automatically after each topic loads. Pass parameters to your code with URLs and store them in session variables that persist for the current session or across sessions. Hide and show topic content on the basis of session variable settings.

Elimination of Flash for copying permalinks
The Copy Permalink function no longer users an Adobe Flash component. This has been replaced by modern HTML5 functions. Among other things, this prepares for Google Chrome’s upcoming blocking of background Flash usage.

Preservation of help state during and between sessions
Navigation pane width and state, header state and the current scroll positions of the keyword index and search results are now preserved for the user during the current session. Navigation pane width and header state are preserved between sessions.

New in the Premium Pack Toolbox

Editing templates for skins with spaces in their names didn’t work in some editors like Sublime Text. The editor opened multiple blank files with the names of the template name components.

Added a sortable Last Edit Date column to the Baggage Files section so that recently edited files can easily be sorted to the top of the list.

A large range of executable Windows script and batch file extensions are now automatically identified as editable “code” files when they are in the baggage so that they are opened in the code editor when you double-click them.

Changing build options on new baggage files added in the current session didn’t activate the Save Project button.

Changing the ID of build options in skins showed incorrect dialogs that needed to be clicked away before the ID could be changed.

Fixes added with the 3.21 Maintenance Update

V3 skins, FOUC:
On some slow servers there could be a FOUC (Flash Of Unformatted Content) on the first load of the WebHelp.

V3 skins, IE bug:
If the user had DOM Storage turned off in Internet Explorer options the WebHelp would come up completely unformatted. This could also happen on older versions of IE with buggy support for DOM Storage.

V3 Skins, tooltips:
There were some hard-coded tooltips in the navigation buttons of the topic header so that changing the variable definitions didn’t change the tooltips.

V3 Skins, right-click on topic links:
A right-click on a topic link executed the link and then displayed the context menu. This now only displays the context menu.

WebHelp/EWriter skins, Boxed Aqua skin:
The file name for the box header background was hard-coded in the template and could not be changed with the configuration variables settings

WebHelp/EWriter skins, print preview:
Print Preview failed to complete correctly due to a conflict with the new support for session variables.

WebHelp/EWriter:
Identification of DOM Storage support for the new session variables updated to account for weaknesses in Internet Explorer.

Language Files:
Some minor corrections in the German versions of the language files.

Premium Pack Toolbox:
An incorrect error message was displayed when removing project and HTML options from the skin. Undoing such a removal now automatically restores the removed value if done while still in the same screen.

Premium Pack Toolbox:
The program could hang on Open Project if the last folder visited was a network folder that had become unavailable, for example on a laptop no longer connected to the network.